This looks like a straight addition problem.
What is YOUR answer?
A car travels 35 km west and 75 km north. what distance did it travel?
4 answers
since they are not in opposite directions, i think we should add the two and end up getting 110. Is that correct?
Yes. The car traveled 110 km.
yes, distance is 110km. However, DISPLACEMENT is not 110km
displacement=sqrt(75^2+35^2)
and direction has to be specified with displacement.
displacement=sqrt(75^2+35^2)
and direction has to be specified with displacement.